Nightmare Queen
by Akallas von Aerok
Summary: You shouldn't have hurt my dad.
1. 1-1

_**One-shot**_

 _ **Written in an hour on 4/19/2017**_  
 _ **No beta**_  
 _ **No proofreading**_

* * *

Her eyes opened, and she slowly sat up.

She rubbed her tear-stricken eyes, and sighed.

"Just another day," she muttered to herself. 'And just another nightmare.'

Lifting the covers off of her swiftly, she threw on her workout t-shirt and white nylon shorts. A pair of socks were put on her, and she was ready for her morning run.

Her body jogged forth, and her mind chanted.

'It's just a nightmare, it's just a nightmare, it's just a nightmare, it's just a nightmare.'

She tried to ignore the new tiny scar on her back.

* * *

Taylor stared at her ex-BFF.

Emma just sniped at her with little remarks, and Taylor only felt pity.

Compared to her nightmares, her peers were pathetic.

Words hurt not at all compared to the serrated scythes of the mad creatures. The tiredness weighing her down consumed all of her conscious effort. Tripping? Falling? A book tossed backward. Compared to keeping herself awake after the nightmare, it was nothing.

Compared to her nocturnal torture, the pests of daylight were nothing.

She frowned as she picked up her books, slid them into her backpack, and walked away.

Sophia bumped into her.

Taylor let her. She stumbled a little, but made no noise nor comeback. Just stared at Sophia for a second in her eyes and then walked away.

She needed to plan for the upcoming nightmare; it was a waste of time and energy to even think about the pathetic trio.

* * *

She gulped.

Her hands tightened around her makeshift weapon, wet with blood and creaking with use, just as she had left the nightmare.

She wildly looked around, trying to spot any of the Nightmares.

She found none, but her mind screamed. Her previous deaths shouted.

 _Move_

She didn't hesitate.

She ran.

Her instinct proved right. The rubble she had been hiding behind exploded upward as a monstrous creature of a hundred arms and hundred axes sprung forth from the decaying ground.

It stared at her.

She stared at it.

It shrieked.

She charged.

* * *

She woke up.

And sobbed.

Dead again.

Though awake as she was, she remembered the axe digging into her body, and the way the Nightmare refused to kill her quickly. It had its way wit her, ripping her apart limb by limb. Skinned her with its fingernails.

Then when it was satisfied in its gory glory, it finished her off with an axe to her face.

She sniffled as the alarm clock rang.

6:00 A.M.

She sighed.

Time to move, time to move.

Forget the nightmare, forget the nightmare.

She tried to ignore the new scar on her cheek. Tiny as it was, she hoped her dad would not notice it.

* * *

She screamed as she woke up.

Dead. Again.

Chopped, raped, and then cooked.

She sobbed, and sobbed, though muffling her screams in her pillow.

She ignored the thin long scar going down from the crook of her neck down to her belly button.

* * *

She woke up.

...

She didn't know what to feel about it.

There was no scar on her.

She sobbed.

She won, for once. She finally killed one of those Nightmares.

She sobbed in happiness.

One of her faded scars disappeared, though she didn't know.

* * *

She grinned happily.

She was sleeping better now. She won against the Nightmares more.

She grew stronger awake as she did in the nightmare.

The bullying didn't bother her.

She was too happy to be bothered.

* * *

She stared at the hospital bed.

"Dad?"

 _Someone hurt her dad._

There was a beep from the EKG.

Dad's eyes fluttered open. "...Taylor?"

She smiled gently. "I'm here, dad."

"No one hurt you, right?"

 _They tried. They were now screaming in her nightmare._

"No. No one hurt me. What happened, dad?"

"Some E88 thugs came by. You know the usual. I refused to let them control the docks."

"I know you did. You always do."

"...Good. Imma take a nap, alright?"

"Okay."

 _Someone hurt her dad._

She gave a polite nod to the nurse taking care of her father as she left.

 _She needed to hunt._

* * *

She stared down at the Nightmares before her.

Every single one of them, which had raped her, killed her, eaten her, and even played with her dying body, now knelt before her. They had changed after her victory. They were no longer her enemies. She changed them when she killed them. Molded them to be her hand. To be her eyes.

They were her soldiers.

Her Nightmares. Her personal demons.

The remnants of the E88 thugs that tried to harass her laid quietly in the corner of this building inside her Nightmare.

She smiled. "Someone hurt dad."

The Nightmares roared and shrieked as one.

The Nightmares that once plagued her were now parts of her.

"I'm going to hurt them back. So I pledge to you all, I shall be the Nightmare to them as you were to me. There will be no rest until the Empire is gone."

A pause.

"Let's get to work."

* * *

Crusader roared as he struck.

It hit.

It didn't matter.

The creature before him grabbed him by his head and slammed him into the ground.

He tried to gag, to spit, to let the blood out of his mouth, but to no avail.

It slammed him into the ground again.

It let go and grabbed his arms.

"N-!"

 _CRACK._

 _POP._

He wanted to scream, but he was faceplanted into the ground again.

His necks were grabbed.

He sobbed.

 _CRACK SNAP_

 _SNAP_

The creature moved away, revealing a young woman behind it. She was dressed like a regal king of the north, if one can call her patchwork of different colored leather cape, costume, and skinmask regal.

Crusader shuddered as it looked upon the faceless skinmask.

"W-Why...?"

The "queen" knelt down.

"Do you hurt?"

"What do you t-think?!" he hissed. Unfortunately, his legs and arms were broken, so he couldn't her hurt.

"You and your friends hurt me and my friends. It's only fair that you are hurt too, right?"

A statement.

"Unfortunately, I don't intend to get hurt in retaliation for this."

The green-skinned giant creature behind her grabbed his broken arms.

"W-Wait, please-" he begged, knowing what was to come.

"Did you wait for my father and my friends?" she asked.

She brought up her fingers, and snapped them.

A short scream, a cascade of blood, and then silence.

* * *

Armsmaster stared at the report before him.

Crusader was dead.

PRT had received a call from an anonymous source that E88 was fighting someone close to the docks. One of their bases, he had presumed, and some hero or other gang hitting it.

He led three Wards and two Protectorates to the scene.

It was silent.

They walked in cautiously.

And was met by .. an art.

That had been Clockblocker's quote.

If it had been drawn on a canvas, Armsmaster would have agreed, but because it was not on canvas, _definitely_ not drawn, and made out of the torn bodies of E88 gang members, it refused to call it an art.

Bodies of the gang members had been reshaped to look like a helix, and rose up to the ceiling of the warehouse they entered.

And at the center of it all was Crusader, torn in half.

He didn't blame the Wards and the other Protectorates from vomiting and contaminating the crime scene. He wanted to barf too.

A creature was there, and from the looks of it, it was there to greet them.

It was a tiny thing. Barely bigger than a chihuahua and without a face.

It looked like a fetus that hadn't developed properly, and thus had grown to a dog-sized fetus ... with weird stick-like wings without feather or skin to keep it afloat or flying. Yet it flew.

"What are you?" he asked.

The creature stared at him for a second with its huge eyes. "I am a messenger."

"To whom?"

"All who would listen."

"Who made you?"

"The Nightmare Queen."

"How?"

"I know not."

"...What is the message?" he asked as he readied his halbard. As soon as the message was said, he was going to kill this thing.

" 'The souls of the wicked have been claimed. They shall be used to fuel the Nightmare. The Queen will no longer watch over as corruption rapes the innocent. She shall become to the corruption what corruption was to the innocent. This is a promise.' "

Then before Armsmaster could do anything, it blew up.

Miss Militia wiped the bloody gunk off of her face. "Fuck."


	2. 1-2

On the projected screen inside PRT's Protectorate Meeting Room 19 was a woman dressed in skintight, patchwork leather and a monster twice as tall as her and bulkier than an elephant.

"So that's the so called 'Nightmare Queen'?" one of the Wards asked.

The picture was a paused video of what had happened to Crusader. It was by luck that a working security camera had been inside that building.

"Watch," Armsmaster replied evenly as he pressed play.

The brute of a monster smashed Crusader on the floor again and again. There was a bit of a conversation too soft for anyone to hear, and then the brute ripped Crusader in two.

Someone ran outside to puke.

Armsmaster didn't blame whoever did rush out just then. As much as everyone here worked to better the world by fighting against evil, not many had quite seen evil on this scale or severity.

"The scene afterward was just as gruesome," he added after the video ended. With another click, a picture appeared. This showed the helix of flesh and blood rising up from the ground to the ceiling with Crusader's corpse hanging limply in the middle of it.

A trophy to commemorate the event? He thought so.

"The self-stylized 'Nightmare Queen' is not on anyone's side. She firmly stated to us that 'she will be what they were to the innocents,'" Miss Militia interjected. "It's unlikely that she'll stop if we asked."

"...Power classification and rating?"

"From the way she commanded that creature, Master 5, and since it's unlikely she just found the thing, Tinker 5 with focus on bio-tinkering," Armsmaster said. "We've yet to see her act on her own."

Director Piggot didn't say anything. She just stared at the screen.

Armsmaster didn't blame her. The pictures and video of Nightmare Queen must remind the Elisburg survivor too much of her own trauma. The way the director simply didn't explode on this spoke volumes of her self-control and integrity.

"So," she spoke at long last. "Her motives aren't directed at us."

"No," he replied. "Not unless we're going to defend the gangs and their capes."

She frowned as she leaned back. "But we can't just leave them to die by her hands. Not like … this," she said as she gestured to the current picture of hanging pieces of Crusader. "PR alone will be nightmare. Slaughterhouse 9 may actually come back to Brockton Bay just for her."

Everyone in the room shuddered as did Colin (though his armor hid that he shuddered at the possibility). If the S9 manages to twist and recruit the Nightmare Queen, the public would be in graver threat than they were now.

For one, unlike the rest of the S9, Nightmare Queen seemed to be capable of teleporting long distances. Cameras on the warehouse she struck showed no sign of her entering or leaving the premise of the warehouse by walking. Instead, a tear opened up midair.

"So if she doesn't have beef with us, our patrols won't be changing any time soon, right?" Clockblocker asked. "I mean, I'd like to stay on base while the Queen's in town, but I doubt my request will be accepted."

"Of course not," Piggot replied casually.

"Aw man. I really hope I don't meet the moody prima donna," he muttered.

"How's she a prima donna?" Vista asked as she re-entered the room. Her pale face spoke of what she thought about this cape.

Clockblocker raised his hand up to his face level and began to count down with his fingers. "Well, first off, the way she walked was too similar to those pompous celebrities. You know, the kind of walk that just screams 'I'm the best there is!' Second, she declared herself a queen, and even had her little minions call her that."

"Oh," Vista muttered as she sat back down on her seat.

"Minions?" Assault spoke up. "I only saw one in the video and none in the picture."

"Observant as always, Assault," Miss Militia praised. "And that's because the second minion we saw literally blew up after delivering the queen's message to us."

"...Oh. Ew."

"As it stands," Piggot spoke up. "Nightmare Queen is hereby considered a C-rank threat. None of you are to approach her or make contact with her. If you see her, call in on her location and retreat."

"Yes, ma'am."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

 _Taylor struck down her latest Nightmare. She watched it writhe before she slammed her Nightmare spear into its neck and through his head. It squirmed for a few seconds more before it stilled. Immediately, she got to work._

 _She pulled the spear out and tore into the flesh of the Nightmare._

'There are many things I've learned,' she thought to herself. 'These Nightmares are not always my nightmares.'

 _She pulled out its vocal cord._ 'It's sometimes not even the nightmare of a human.'

 _She pulled the skin from the skull of the creature as big as herself. She had a few idea about what to make this Nightmare into._

'Every time I wake and walk, I pull in the Nightmares of others into my Realm. Store them there, and when I sleep, I draw upon to fight.'

 _She pressed her hands into the skull, and the skull molded to her hands' movement._

'Nightmares hate to be controlled. They are the product of trauma and fear. They are not cuddly nor cooperative.'

 _Satisfied with the shape of this Nightmare's skull, she pulled the skin back together._

'That's why I had to fight and win to control them. Otherwise, they are unbound, only living in my Realm.'

 _She began her work with the body, but as she did so, she ran a parallel thought to her current train of thoughts. She wondered what she should name this Nightmare._

'Nightmares from my own dreams are the most uncooperative. To them, working with me goes against every instinct they gain upon entering my Realm.'

 _She named the green beast she used to kill as Brute. Not very creative, yes, but sufficient nonetheless._

'Nightmare of those who feared me, like Crusader before his death, are cooperative. I am the source of their creation and influence, and thus working with me fulfills part of their purpose as a Nightmare.'

 _She pulled at the female Nightmare's chest and ripped its ribcage open. Then she grabbed one of the twisted rocks and shoved them into the creature's ribcage, stabbing its heart with it._

'Once I tame them, I can bring them to reality from my Realm.'

 _She closed the ribcage and the flesh above. She looked around and found several arms laying about. She got those and stuck them into the creature's shoulder. She molded the flesh and bone to make new joint for the new pair of arms._

'But I can only bring so much. I can only control so much outside the Realm.'

 _Blood squirted and flesh rended._

'But whenever I kill a cape, I gain these metallic shards. I can insert them into my Nightmares to empower them.'

 _She faced her bloody palms to her chest and slowly pulled away. Almost painfully slowly, a green shard giving off a dim red light pushed itself out of her chest and into her awaiting hands._

'With the shards, I can make my Nightmares stronger. Make them more fitting for my purpose. To wipe out the filth.'

 _She placed the shard into the Nightmare's chest, and pushed in. Without breaking the creature's skin, it sunk in._

'And then...'

 _The Nightmare woke up._

'I will finally be safe.'

 _It slowly stood up and stared at her._

 _She stared back._

" _Your name from now is Shiva, okay?"_

 _It nodded._

" _My third daughter."_

 _Other Nightmares rose up from the ground, eager to see their new siblings._

" _Welcome to the family."_

/\/\/\/\/\/\

Shiva left the Realm on her own. Unlike her siblings, she wanted to see the real world. She wanted to see who had birthed her previous self.

It was exciting!

She tested the feel of the asphalt beneath her feet, and felt the air of the world sift through her long hair. It was … definitely different from the Realm.

Cranking her four arms back, she whirled them around slowly.

Then with a jump to her skips, she drifted off into the night.

She wondered what she would see.

If she brought humans with a lot of nightmares, would mother praise her? Thank her? She couldn't wait to find out.

And just like that, the happy skip turned into a more silent prowl with a distinct predatory gaze guiding her to her prey.


	3. 1-3

The "prey" that Shiva came upon was a young man. It wore odd colors compared to her mother, which confused her. The human wore baggy clothes not made from the skins of its enemies. Rather, it wore the remnants of plants.

How curious.

How ... weak.

Mother told her that humans were weak, and mother was right. These humans were weak. They couldn't even stomach the rights of victory a hunter had.

Silently and cautiously, Shiva swerved around the creature, which held a tiny rock to its ears. The rock sang with odd versions of human voices.

No matter. It was merel crippling itself further.

It didn't notice her.

She was upon it.

It didn't notice her.

Her hands closed in.

It didn't notice her.

She grabbed it.

It screamed.

It was silenced.

She pulled at the carcass's useless clothing towards the gateway to her home.

Food for herself. Food for her siblings.

Skin for clothes. Skins to proclaim her successful hunt.

/\/\/\/\/\/\

For Taylor, May 5th was a special day. It was the day she triggered, after all.

She hummed quietly as she laid out the silverwares for dinner.

On the table was a array of delectable salads, steaks, honey porkchops, steaming soups, spiced fish, and the like. Something she should not have been able to afford.

Fortunately, villain hunting had its uses. By law, it was her right to claim the loot, and claim them she did.

Now, she wasn't exactly rich, but she could pay off her family's mortgage. However, she was not exactly a hero either; the PRT already released information about her -they called her the Nightmare Queen. Ha! If they only knew- and condamned her methods. So bringing in ninety thousand dollars or so into her family's bank account out of nowhere was going to alert the PRT and the Protectorate about her -or at least cause suspicion and thus restrict her.

Once again, it was her fortune that since her Realm was inaccessible to all but her, she had just tossed the money in there, and began adding tiny bits of money into her father's bank account.

Her father was not coming to this dinner, however.

Taylor came to a conclusion quite early upon learning how to mold the Nightmares to her design that the Nightmares ... didn't quite have common sense. They didn't know how to talk, possessed no ettiquette, or anything of the like.

Her sensibilities did not like that.

This dinner was part of that quest. Quest to educate her children! Well, for some of them. Her brightest didn't quite need her instruction.

She clapped her hands. "Alright, boys and girls. Time to chow."

Of the countless Nightmares, only five appeared.

These were her, for a lack of better word, lieutenants. They were also the most eager to learn, the most learned, and the most ... tame of their siblings.

The first was Brute. He named himself, to her surprise and dismay. Brute was not a name she liked, but Brute was extremely stubborn about it, going as far as to ignoring her when she used other names she had given him. She gave up, and called him Brute for his stubbornness.

Brute was also the Nightmare who took apart Crusader.

The 21st child to be shaped into life, Brute was a mama's boy. He did everything she asked, including learning manners.

"Queen Mother," Brute answered her call with a slight bow.

But sometimes, he went overboard. Really, Queen mother?

Taylor huffed. "Brute, I told you not to call me that. You're going to get your siblings to call me that too."

The second Nightmare to arrive was her firstborn, the eldest of the Sisters of Blasphemy, Uriella. Unlike her younger brother, Uriella looked mostly like a human. She had soft brown skin with toga to cover herself. What made her rather intimidating was her wings. Her six pairs of bright white wings tended to scare humans really, really well.

Considering that she looked like one of the Endbringers, Taylor thought that it was a warranted terror. Unfortunately, none lived long after meeting her.

Uriella had been the one that Taylor went to when times got tough. Like when the E88 hurt her father.

She was also in charge of the Nightmare Realm when Taylor wasn't "in."

'Speaking of Nightmare Realm,' Taylor thought to herself as her other children came through. 'I'll have to ask how it's going over there.' Unlike the material world where time is relative but linear, the Nightmare Realm was anything _but_ linear.

In fact, there were parts of the Realm that drastically sped up time or do the opposite.

Her 5th son was stuck in one of the time-slowing ones. It was quite the loss for her current campaign because Oroborus had a very good nose to sniff out people based on _identity_ , not physical smell.

"Hello, mother," the 3rd Nightmare to join the table spoke up.

"Hi, Johnny!" she grinned.

Johnny, despite his name, was no humanoid. In fact, _it_ was a glob of slime that had numerous skulls and bones floating inside of it.

The 4th Nightmare to join remained quiet. It nodded to its mother, to which she nodded back. Shepherd was a headless centaur, which spoke volumes about its ability to nod.

The last of her children to join her was ...

"Shiva?"

The girl was bloody up rather well.

"Did you go human hunting? I hope you didn't attack anyone who's not a villain," Taylor said as she put her curled up hands on her hips.

Shiva nodded frantically, even pulling out a red and black bandana of the E88.

Taylor beamed and the others scowled. "Good job! But what did you do with the body?"

Shiva looked over her shoulder.

Everyone looked at the portal she came through.

The Nightmares on the other side were busy eating too.

"Right," Taylor replied. "Well, it's time for us to eat too. Uriella, can you teach Shiva how to hold her silverware?"

"Of course."

"Dig in!"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The dinner was a loud affair. As educated as the elder four were, they were still loud -except Shepherd; he had no mouth.

Shiva seemed overwhelmed.

Taylor clapped her hands twice, and the noise died down immediately.

"Well, it seems that Shiva can at least hold her utensils correctly, right Brute?"

The large green skinned Nightmare changed to pinkish red. "Not my fault my hands are so big."

Taylor laughed as did ... Shepherd?

Well, Taylor supposed the blood gurgling from its neck was a laugh... or was it choking? It did eat -no mouth doesn't mean you can't shove food down the esophagus- but if it sent food down the wrong way...

She rolled her eyes mentally. Who was she kidding? They were all her children, her Nightmares!

A bit of fish bones wasn't going to kill them. Or harm them.

Would it even bother them?

"Well, today's meeting is about Shiva's education and the Nightmare Troops' attack on E88," Taylor announced. "Uriella, are you up for it?"

The firstborn shook her head. "Sorry, mother, but coming here alone is straining my schedule." When Taylor looked sad, Uriella quickly corrected herself. "But no less enjoyable."

"I'm glad to hear," Taylor smiled sadly.

As much as she did want to take over the role she had delegated to Uriella, she couldn't. Nightmares could not be born with her hands and the hands of the few shard holding Nightmares.

In fact, of the countless Nightmares she made, there were only nine shard holders, three of whom were in this very dining room.

Brute held a shard Taylor named "Hierro," Spanish for Iron Skin.

Shepherd held a shard called "Herd Mentality."

And the finaly shard holder here was Shiva, whose shard was dubbed "Multiplier."

Hierro reduced whatever damage Brute took and reduced its impact by 99%.

Herd Mentality allowed Shepherd to control Nightmares directly, and with his significant tactical intellect -which existed somehow without a brain-, he was the Marshall of the Nightmare Troops.

Multiplier was odd in that it demanded Shiva to hit to be activated. It multiplied the damage she dealt to others every two hits by two. So if she struck a target, however lightly, with all four of her arms once, the next real punch would hit four times as hard.

"Hmm... Would you do it, Brute?"

"I don't trust anyone else to guard you, mother."

Shiva nodded frantically again. She knew Brute was strong. She knew Brute would protect mother better than any other Nightmare.

"...Could you find someone to help Shiva then, Shepherd?"

The headless centaur nodded.

Taylor beamed.

And once more, Brute and Uriella were reminded of the powers of a mother. They couldn't even see that imperceptible movement of Shepherd's neck moving with his 'nod,' but mother did.

Impressive, indeed.

"Good. Oh, also, Shepherd?"

The centaur straightened its back as it took in -somehow- mother's suddenly cold tone.

"I want at least a hundred of the Empire's thugs, cape or no, brought to the front of the PRT by tomorrow morning. Send out all Nightmares if you have to."

Uriella looked affronted. That much logistics of food to be fed...! "Mother, it would be alright if we hunted for more, right? It's getting hard to feed the more active Nightmares."

"Oh. Of course. Just not the innocents, alright? Rapists, murderer... hell, go invade the prisons around the world if you want to."

Uriella nodded, and though Taylor didn't see it, Uriella's angelic face gave away to a jaw-splitting grin filled with rows of sharp saw-like teeth.

Brute scoffed at his eldest sister's antics.

'As always, Uriella is too bloodthirsty,' he thought to himself.

"Brute?"

"Yes, mother?"

"You will be around, yes?"

"Of course, mother."

"Good. Then let's clean up before you go."

/\/\/\/\

Unlike the rest, Shiva remained after the table was cleaned up.

"Yes, dear?"

"Ah..." Shiva moaned but didn't go on.

Taylor facepalmed. 'Right,' she thought to herself. She didn't learn how to speak yet, though she understood. If it wasn't for the fact that she was her mother, understanding would be impossible.

"You ... want to give me something, dear?"

She nodded. From her back, she pulled out a recently dried peach leather.

Taylor beamed. "Did you work on that for me?"

Shiva nodded.

Taylor took the leather gently and petted Shiva's reptilian forehead. "Thank you."

Shiva flushed with a goofy grin.

Taylor wondered what exactly made Shiva this way.

Shiva, her third daughter and the latest addition to the Nightmare Troops, was once a Nightmare drawn from the minds of a dying old man. The hospitalized old man was a soldier, and had been having nightmares about the child he had accidentally killed during World War II.

It was sad, really. Even though it happened eighty years ago, it plagued him.

Taylor did the right thing and silently -and quickly- took the man's life and shard.

As she watched Shiva leave, she thought about the possibility of humans imprinting on each other beyond the physial means, because hell, she was the embodiment of Nightmare given form. Sure, she had a shard herself to help her, but why couldn't normal humans do so?

After all, her Nightmare Realm wasn't _hers_ until she took it from another human.

A shardless human.

 **Beep beep!**

Taylor startled and pulled out her phone. It wasn't a new model, but it was a smartphone she stole from one of the E88 thugs she killed. And on it was a single remainder.

[Cultists wanted to meet at 9pm today! Don't forget!]

"Right," she muttered to herself.

Ever since she begun her good career, she had run into a lot of people. Some people recognized her, and told her that she reached into their dreams and took their nightmares away.

And some of the more loony people decided they wanted to form a cult around her.

She just shrugged, and replied, "Why the fuck not."

Now, she was going to need to bring one of her Nightmares to prove herself -humans were so fickle otherwise.

"...Brute? Can you materialize when I call for you?"

"Of course, mother."

With a snap of her fingers, her patchwork leather costume draped around her, including the fur-rimmed cape covering most of her body, and she walked into her Nightmare Realm.


	4. 1-4

Kaiser knew he was scared, but he refused to show it.

To show weakness now would shake the foundation of the Empire.

Trust. Trust that their leaders were unshakable. That their leaders were the pillars of their ideals.

Kaiser, on the other hand, was weighing the pros and cons of simply ... disappearing. Oh, retirement sounded really good when one did not have to fight monstrosities.

The Protectorate did nothing.

The PRT did nothing.

The public did nothing.

 _Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk!_

All the while, the fringes of the empire collapsed as monsters sprung out from the shadows and dragged their members away. More than a hundred members disappeared overnight.

What made it worse was that the monsters, they called themselves the Nightmare Troops, didn't care whether the capes were in their civilian life or cape-guise. That's how Hookwolf and Victor were taken. Othala was a wreck without Victor.

"So no one can find this 'Queen'?" he asked.

The capes and non-capes around him fidgetted.

The video of Crusader's "execution" had leaked from PRT servers. Her conversation was too soft for anyone to hear, but the way Crusader was so easily ripped apart and then made into ... a monument was a bit too much.

Even some of the softer ABB members sent their condolences.

"BOS-!"

Thunk.

Thud.

Splash.

Kaiser shot up from his chair in the meeting room. "What's going on out there?!" he shouted.

No response.

"You, go check it out," Kaiser said as he pointed to a random mook and then to the door.

The thug was slow to obey. The obvious shaking of his limbs told everyone what he thought about the dangers beyond the door. He made his way there and opened it.

And gagged.

He stumbled back, went to a corner, and threw up. By doing so, he left the door wide open, and everyone in the room saw what had happened to the guards outside.

There was only a head and a copious amount of blood left.

Kaiser drew out a blade. "Is it a Nightmare?" he asked quietly.

Making too much noise around those _things_ was a death sentence. Kaiser saw how quickly Hookwolf had drawn Nightmares to him through a video posted online.

 _Hookwolf roared as he slashed and stabbed. The Nightmare he fought laughed along, striking Hookwolf with abandon with its flurry of punches and kicks._

 _The two of them were in one of the wider alleys, and people were watching from the entrance of the alley. They were too afraid to move in. Some were calling the PRT while a few were running away upon spotting the Nightmare._

 _But as they got louder, more Nightmares rose up from the shadows of the imprompt ring._

 _Human audiences in the video ran for their lives as monsters of various sizes rose up._

 _Then one of the new Nightmares got impatient. It jumped Hookwolf, who hadn't even recognized the other Nightmares._

 _Hookwolf went down when the rabbit-giraffe-tiger-thing landed on his back and tore into him._

 _The Nightmare he was fighting roared and jumped on, tearing Hookwolf's head away._

 _The others joined in the feast of human flesh._

Kaiser did not want that to happen right here, where there were too many shadows and too less room to fight.

One of the braver thugs rose up and left the room. Stepping into the blood, he looked left then right. He looked back and signaled "safe."

He died a second later when a hand lashed out from above him.

Kaiser died a minute later.

/\/\/\/\/\

Armsmaster put his tools down. He looked over his newest gadget with satisfaction clear on his ever-blank face.

The video "Crusader vs. Brute Monster" showed Crusader striking the monster with his spear. Had Armsmaster been struck like that, it would've dug deep into his heart. Instead, the monster took the hit, scoffed, and killed Crusader.

Armsmaster knew immediately upon seeing the video that he had to devise a new modification to his halberd to include something less "physical" to cut away at the monster, should he ever meet it. To that end, he had worked with Dragon to create his first ever long-range plasma launcher. It would gather anything Armsmaster stabbed his halberd to, turn it into either a hot slug or plasma and chuck it where Armsmaster wanted it. The coordination part was done by his helmet's hud.

It was a prototype, but for a prototype, it worked well.

But as he stood up to get a drink, an alarm in his computer rang and it was tied to the "Nightmare Portal" energy residue.

Forgetting about the drink, he donned his armor quickly as possible and ran outside to where his HUD was alerting him to the position of the portal...

To the entrance of the PRT building?

... Were they under attack?!

As PRT agents were leaving and entering the building as the night shift ended, a dark portal opened up above the PRT building's main entrance. It wasn't quiet either.

It was a combination of glass shattering, thunderstorm brewing, and humans screaming. The former two stopped when the portal reached maximum size.

The screaming didn't.

Then...

It happened.

It rained blood and flesh.

People ran. Capes arrived on scene and watched in horror as the street was died red with blood, and body parts decorated the sidewalks.

Armsmaster too felt a deep sickness. He jerked back when a head landed right in front of him and splattered from the force of the impact.

Dauntless was the only other Protectorate member with him, and he looked sick, even with his full helmet and cape costume.

"Be on guard," Armsmaster told the younger Protectorate.

They watched, waiting in horror, as the blood dyed everything around them in red.

Dauntless was the first to spot it.

All of the dead bodies. They had white skin color.

Armsmaster was the next to notice the other detail. Though drenched in blood, the sigil of E88 was clear enough for his cameras and software to distinguish among the clothes of the dead.

"Okay, what the fuck did the empire do to piss off Nightmare Queen?"

The two armored capes turned to Miss Militia behind them.

"When did you get here?" Dauntless asked as he took in her blood-soaked appearance.

"I was with you two from the start."

"Ah."

Miss Militia grumbled as she backtracked into the PRT building. "Armsmaster, is that normal blood?" she asked. "And where the hell is this screaming coming from?!"

The trio stared up into the portal. They couldn't see anything on the other side, but they could hear the screams of men and women dying.

"...We have to go through," Armsmaster muttered.

Dauntless grabbed his leader by the arm. "Are you fucking crazy?!" he shouted. "You don't know what's on the other side!"

"So we're just going to let people die on the other side?" he growled back, slapping away Dauntless's hands.

"How the fuck do you know there are people alive on the other side? What if it's a trap for us?"

That stopped Armsmaster cold.

Dauntless was ... right as much as it grated him. Screams coming from the portal may actually be a bait for capes like himself.

But ... it was too agonizing to just let it go.

He startled as his helmet blared in his ear, and the hud turned red.

 _[Abnormal brain chemistry detected]_

His helmet also picked up something else.

Armsmaster paled.

"It's a Master effect." He turned to Miss Militia. "Militia! Get two tanks ready for myself! Those screams have a Master effect!"

Miss Militia stared at her boss for a second before nodding.

"What do you mean?" Dauntless asked as he pulled up his shield to finally keep the blood rain away from himself.

"My helmet detected influences in my brain chemistry," he replied. "My temporal lobe has gained heightened activity since listening to the screams."

"It could just be-"

"Dauntless," Armsmaster snapped at the younger Protectorate cape. "Listen to me good right now. I know for a fact that you are likely to take over my position sooner or later."

"Wha-"

"I hate to admit it to myself, but you will hear me _right now_. As a leader, you _cannot_ ignore anything if there is even a single possibility that it jeopardizes your team. Is that understood? Now, I have evidence that there is a possible Master effect in the entire region around us, what must the _leader_ do?"

Dauntless stood there, shocked.

Then he stuttered. "I.. uh-... Master/Stranger containment for all affected individuals as soon as the situation has been cleared."

Armsmaster nodded. He let Dauntless go. "Good. Then leave before you're affected as well."

Dauntless hesitated and then ran back into the PRT building.

Alone, Armsmaster stood there.

He twirled his halberd before tucking it underneath his right arm.

"I see you."

A pause.

A chuckle.

A laugh.

And then full-blown laughter.

"Oh, you are good," something spoke. "Master/Stranger bullshit too, whatever that is. You saw me, and told your friend back off."

Armsmaster ignored its words. "Are those screams real?"

"Why wouldn't they be-?"

He thrusted.

Something dodged and rose up from the centimeter deep blood pool. "Oh, oh, oh, you really did see me then."

It looked ... horrifying. Covered in blood, it looked like an emaciated man without genitals. Its sunken, eyeless eyesockets seemed to have a light of its on that stared into Armsmaster's eyes.

"You are one of the Nightmare Troops."

The creature waved its arms out. "Correcto!"

"What are you doing here? The Nightmare Queen's messenger said she would not bother us."

The creature bowed slightly. "Of course, of course. I don't intend to kill you or harm you... lest you get in my way."

"...And what is your purpose here? Did the Queen send you with another message?"

The creature straightened its back and adopted a thinking position.

Armsmaster noted that while the rain of blood had stopped while they were talking, the creature seemed to still spew blood.

"Well, you see... We Nightmares have a problem."

Armsmaster tightened the grip on his halberd.

"Some of us ... need a special diet. Because of how we were brought to material life, we maintained the purpose behind our immaterial creation."

"Purpose?"

The creature smiled, and its toothless, broad grin that spewed blood like a waterfall was a sickening visage.

Despite the blood leaking out, it spoke clearly.

"Why... To be a nightmare!"

It spread its arms. "I was born from the nightmare of a young woman. She was a healer who was burned by so much pressure-"

'Panacea?' Armsmaster though, because really, who else was a young woman, a healer, and burdened in North east east?

"-that she ... began to fear her ability not being able to match up to her desire. She wanted to heal everyone, but she couldn't. Whatever she did, it hadn't even dented the number of people who was hurt."

The creature hunched forward.

"So her mind created me. Her idea of ... Never. Ending. Agony," it smiled. "And I exist to perpetuate sickness and pain. My blood here? It is ripe with diseases and toxins."

Armsmaster froze.

If the entire source of blood here was a biohazard flowing into the sewers and then into the ocean...!

He quickly contacted Director Piggot. "Director, the blood is a biohazard! Every single drop of it!"

"But there was something more personal..." the creature continued, and Armsmaster focused on it. As much as it was an enemy, it was freely giving away information; he wasn't stupid enough to stop that flow of information. "Upon our materialization, we began to crave food, and those of us born from pain began to crave the flesh of our creators' kin."

Armsmaster struck.

The body parted like water, and its liquid body seemed through the openings.

Armsmaster hissed as the warm blood flowed inside his suit. It quickly filled up, and soon, he was gurgling in blood.

"Now, our Queen Mother said to not kill heroes, so I won't. But your prisoners? Your villains who you let go so often?"

It formed a smile made out of blood inside Armsmaster's helmet in front of his eyes.

"They are _our food_."

Then the blood drained out, leaving Armsmaster coughing on the bloody street ground.

"Armsmaster, Birdcage is under attack!"

His hud opened up a video of Birdcage seen from afar.

He watched in horror as giant portals like the one above him cracked upon above the skies of the Birdcage ...

And literal tens of thousands of creatures swarmed out.

Then the cracks upon from the ground, and giant monsters bigger than Endbringers marched out.

"FOOD!" the creature in front of him screamed. It raised its arms up. "FOOD!"

The video of Birdcage crackled with noise.

"FOOD!" the nightmares in the video roared as one as they converged on Birdcage. "FOOD!"

"It's not just Birdcage," an operator hissed in PRT main channel. "Elisburg is being hit!"

Armsmaster brought up another video, this one from the security feed on the walls of Elisburg.

Less than Birdcage, but there were enough nightmares to drown out the North east east cape population.

"FOOD!" the monsters at Elisburg shouted in glee as they jumped down. "FOOD!"

"They're hitting regular prisons!"

Armsmaster's helmet showed more and more prisons being hit by the nightmares. Numbers untold altogether with powers to match the capes.

He glared up at the creature still chanting in front of him.

"This is a clear violation of her own declaration!" he roared.

The blood-creature frowned.

"No hero will be killed as best as our troops can handle," it replied with ... more than its voice.

"Nightmare Queen," he took a shot at the dark.

"The one and only," the voice replied smoothly with a slow and low bow. "I stated that no hero will be hurt, but that I will be the nightmare that the villains were to the innocent. I am holding true to my word, Armsmaster. Nightmare cares not for the institutions. Nightmares strike the most innocent of children, Nightmare strikes the most hardened veterans of war, and they strike anywhere, anytime. And so my Nightmare Troops will strike at the villains wherever they are, regardless of who they are."

He slowly got up. He knew that he was covered in blood, but it didn't matter.

"You will stop this!"

A pause.

The creature smiled.

"I think not," the creature replied with its own voice. "...Besides, the building behind you has villain prisoners of its own, right?"

Armsmaster whipped his head around. The PRT building...?!

He whirled around-

"Armsmaster, blood is everywhere!" Miss Militia shouted as she ran out of the building with PRT agents and capes. "It's coming through from every faucet in the base! We need help!"

 _But there was no one who could help them_ , a corner of his mind whispered hopelessly. _Not when the entire nation was under attack like this._

/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Help me!" someone screamed.

Dauntless, whose camera in his helmet was linked to PRT channel, sprinted towards the brigs. He skided to a stop, just in time to see an ABB thug get shredded apart by the blood-creature.

The creature screeched in ecstasy as it drained the blood from the bisected thug.

"Stop!" Dauntless lunged with his spear.

The blood monster ... grabbed the spear, stopping it completely.

"The Queen Mother said heroes were a no go, dear hero, but anyone who interferes is exempt," it said and then broke the spear tip. "Do you want to test that, hero?"

Dauntless backed away. With his weapon in pieces, it was unlikely that he could fight successfully, not when the creature broke a solid spear tip 6 inches in length forged out of high-quality titanium alloy so easily.

It didn't even bend; it _shattered_ like glass. The amount of force required to make metals shatter was beyond anything Dauntless could survive.

"Shit, shit, shit!" he hissed to himself as he backed away, one step at a time.

The creature laughed. "Step aside mortal," it cackled as it speared another prisoner.

The screams of the dying and hopeless villains perpetuated throughout Brockton Bay as Nightmares descended upon them.


	5. 1-5

"It'll be alright."

As the creatures of hell descended down upon them, the prisoners did one of two things: run or fight.

For him, it was simple. Marquis roared as he did something he had never done before in his life. All of the hidden techniques that he didn't use on Brockton Bay Brigade or Allfather were unleashed in this moment of hell.

He went all out.

Bones erupted from the ground and himself. Desperation drove him as they skrewed the Nightmares. Nightmares dodged and weaved. Many were caught by the bone screws. Those that dodged were met with phalange bone bullets fired from the tips of his fingers.

When they got too close to him, he allowed the bones to erupt out of him in all directions in a shell of deadly bone spikes.

But throughout all this, his danger sense clung to him to avoid one particular Nightmare.

It stood on the other end of the prison wing, watching his struggle against its monster brethrens. It scrutized him as if to discover something about him.

Then suddenly all of the monsters stopping attacking him, the biggest threat to them in this prison wing, when the creature his danger sense kept screaming at him about raised its hand. The monsters all looked to it, and it did something.

Marquis wanted to throw up when he heard blood gurling and popping from the creature.

In an instant, the brief reprieve was over.

The monsters attacked once more.

He raised his bones to protect himself and one other prisoner.

The monsters ignored them both and attacked the others.

Those that lived were dragged away.

Those that didn't were ... eaten on spot.

Marquis stood there, watching in horror beneath his net of bones.

"Miss Canary, are you alright?" he asked the prisoner he protected.

She nodded frantically.

He swallowed.

Canary and he had become good friends as wards of Birdcage. Well, it was close to him being just the usual gentlemen that he was, and she sought his protection in this lawless concrete jungle. Her jokes were good though, and they bound together over the injustice of what had been done to them.

She had triggered and used her power without even knowing to commit a crime, which -if she knew her power- she would not have.

He had made his city better. He was building up a good future for Brocktom Bay so that his daughter could live in it without having to worry about being gunned down simply by walking across a street. Instead, some bitch with a grudge against him went far as to break the unwritten rule to make a citizen's arrest.

Last he heard, Brockton Bay was in worst shape than how he left it.

Inside Birdcage, Canary didn't use her power because of her trauma, but he did.

"Canary... I know I'm asking a lot, but are you willing to try?"

He didn't need to explain; she knew what he was asking. Being surrounded by demons kind of took out a need for explanation when her power involved command.

She nodded hesitantly.

But before he could rip out the gag, the Monster was in front of him. It had teleported inside the cage that he had created.

He scrambled back, pushing Canary behind him. "Stay back!" he hissed as he pulled out a bone sword and armored himself with bone plates.

It looked over him once.

"Weak," it spoke with the voice of a grizzled old man. "This is the human that created me?"

Marquis stilled as he stared at it, confused. "What?"

It spat on the ground.

"Call me Warlord, Marquis," it growled. "I was born from you."

"Y-You are not making any sense. I only had one c-"

"You're getting your shit wrong, you son of a bitch. I was born _from you_ not birthed _by you_."

"...Then would you correct me?"

Warlord laughed. "Gentlement even in battle, eh?" it asked. "Very well." It gave him a mock bow. "My name is Warlord, the second Shard-born of the Queen Mother of the Nightmare Realms."

"Your name and title have no meanings to me witho-"

"Then shut the fuck up and listen!" Warlord roared.

Marquis snapped his jaw shut.

Canary shook behind him in fear.

Warlord paused before it growled again.

"Queen Mother creates my kind from the negative ethereal concepts derived from nocturnal dreams of others. Nightmares born from the minds of other people, if you will," it continued, not minding the blood flowing around the cage and the prison. "And you see, our Queen Mother must have met you at some point, because she looked into your dreams and pulled me out."

Marquis didn't reply for a second. "But how...?"

"It's how her power works. She calls it the Demon Shaping." It chuckled. "And we are exactly that: demons."

The noise of the fighting around them died down, and the other monsters were all staring at the duo.

"Tell me, Marquis. What is your biggest fear?"

The man tightened the grip on his bone sword. "Don't you da-!"

"Hurt Amelia? Dear gods, no. That's not the nightmare the plagued you for a long time. Let me tell you this, dear Marquis. As much as nightmares change, the _influence_ of the nightmares past, present, and future are different." It waved its arms around. "Every single Nightmares here were born from the longest dread shaped by our creators. Now, I ask again. What is your biggest _nightmare_?"

"... Becoming something worse than Allfather."

Warlord clapped. "Close, close."

"...Worse than a thug."

"There we go! And ... That's exactly what I am, _father_. I didn't choose to be called Warlord on a whim," it cackled. "These Nightmares here are all my soldiers, graciously given to me by Queen Mother! And I am here to spread chaos! To devoir human flesh! To eat! To Eat!"

"FOOD!" the Nightmares chanted around them loudly. They banged their hooves and fists. "FOOD!"

"And the scums of the earth are our food."

"FOOD!"

"We held back because our mother requested. But all of a sudden, that command was rescinded."

"FOOD!"

Marquis drew into himself as he shivered, but even as he did so, he kept his bones protectively around him and Canary.

Warlord spun around from the other side of the bone cage with its arms wide open. "And Birdcage is the biggest fight there is! Biggest chaos we can unleash!"

"FOOD!"

"... But alas. I cannot kill all of the inmates or even you."

Marquis snapped his head up. "Why?" he asked immediately.

"Our Queen Mother seeks no death of grays, Marquis," it snarled, clearly unsatisfied of that particular order. "Surprisingly, this exempts 43 of your capes in this shitty prison from being killed by our forces."

Marquis looked at Warlord in shock.

43?

43?

43?!

That was less than 5% of the entire Birdcage population!

Something through the walls, and Marquis felt a bit of hope rising up within him when he saw what it was.

It was one of Dragon's armored suits!

"Bah, lifeless shit," Warlord muttered before swiping from where he stood at Dragon's suit.

It crumpled into itself and disappeared.

Marquis felt horror, and that turned into shock when the suit reappeared mere seconds later as some kind of infested eldritch abomination.

"My specialty, Marquis, is 'infection,'" the Nightmare commented as the suit ran back outside and began to engage other suits. "I can infect anything that can be considered alive by the loosest sense of the any definiton of living. Then I turn them on my enemies." It chuckled. "Of course, I have limits, just like you, and mine happens to be around things that are non-organic in origin, which doesn't quite help me in most situations."

"...Why are you telling me all of this?"

Warlord cackled. "As much as I want to kill you, I am your Nightmare, Marquis. Being a gentlemen and explaining what I do and why I do it is part of being born from you. I can't help it." Then he teleported back out of the bone cage. "Goodbye, father. I hope to never see you again, for your sake."

The Nightmare turned away from Marquis and Canary, and went to slaughter other prisoners.

When they were completely gone from their sight, Canary finally managed out a whimper from behind Marquis. He merely pulled her into a loosely one-arm hug.

It certainly wasn't going to be alright.

/\/\/\/\/\

 **A week later...**

"..What is the world coming to?"

Apparently, after passing out in front of his daughter during her visit, he had fallen into a brief coma lasting for a week or so.

During that time, the world had gone under an upheaval.

A new parahuman by the name of Nightmare Queen rose up shortly after he was hospitalized. He saw the video of her first appearance, which was somehow leaked from PRT servers. Something niggled at the back of his mind when he saw that video.

Then apparently, the Queen moved from a city-bound parahuman to a continental threat comparable to Slaughterhouse 9, and reached that rank by siccing her creations, her "Nightmare Troops," upon the unappreciated members of the populace across estern North America.

The bottom barrel scums, serial rapists, hardcore criminal drug addict, unrepentent murderers, and parahuman villains.

Especially parahuman villains.

He saw the video of Birdcage being struck by the horde of Nightmares.

The death toll was in the hundreds of thousands with a minority of it being cops, military troops, and even some capes trying to defend some of those very people who had once threatened them.

Now, the Nightmare Queen was the Thing that goes Bump in the Night. The unofficial ruler of Northeastern North America.

Something really tickled his mind then.

That was when he realized that something was wrong about him.

Then he realized in horror that he had become a parahuman himself.

...

Shit, what was he going to tell Taylor?

/\/\/\/\/\

Taylor was happy.

Dad was awake!

Without a care in the world (completely ignoring invisible Uriella's telepathic report on the "harvest"), she skipped her way to the hospital, and arrived by her father's bedside in record time.

Then she saw the shard within her father as his nightmare of being outted as a parahuman entered her mind.

...

Shit.

What was she going to tell her father?

/\/\/\/\

 **Like father like daughter.**

/\/\/\/\

 **Interlude: Purity**

Somehow, she had escaped the culling.

She held tightly onto her infant daughter as she rode the bus out of New York.

It was hard for her, honestly. She had been on the road for three days now, trying to escape the Nightmare Queen's clutches.

But she wondered if she was going to really escape the Nightmare Queen.

After all, the parahuman began her career by "modern-artifying" Crusader. And then her very next act was to launch an attack on everyone she deemed "unworthy" across all levels of life. It didn't matter if you were a rich scammer ruining people's lives or you were the lowest of the low, killing for the sake of wanting to kill.

If you were a true villain, you were dead.

'Then why was I spared?' she thought to herself.

She didn't think it was because she was a woman. Nightmare Queen didn't seem like a sexist, and plenty of women had died at the hands, hooves, claws, horns, feet, jaws, and other brutal manners by her Nightmares.

Aster cooed. Kayden looked down at her daughter, and bounced her a bit. She earned herself a heart-wrenchingly cute laughter from her girl.

But she had this feeling that she wasn't off the hook yet.

Just ... delayed.

/\/\/\/\/\

 **Interlude: Lung and Oni Lee**

They had survived ... somehow.

Their gang had not.

ABB was one of the hardest hit by the Nightmare Troops. There was absolutely no mercy for them. It took a hundred Nightmares rampaging across their territory, killing and kidnapping any members wearing ABB colors for the gang to disband.

Oh, Lung tried to fight, but he lost.

He lost.

Oni Lee, his ever loyal lieutenant, had been there to teleport him to safety.

Away from Brockton Bay.

Away from New England.

Away from North east east.

It didn't feel like they had survived, though.

They survived against Leviathan.

They survived against the PRT and Protectorate.

They hadn't survived against the Nightmare Queen.

No, they ran.

And Lung hated himself for it.

He ignored the cooing of a white baby behind him.


End file.
